Of Interest

Although policies will be set by our board of directors, we will always seek community involvement. Let’s start by revisiting our policy on removals.

How can I get a post or comment about me deleted?

Just ask! EphBlog will delete almost any post or comment which mentions a specific individual at the request of that individual. We have been asked a dozen times to delete specific material and have complied with almost every request. This is not to say that we will delete anything that anyone wants us to. For example, important, news-worthy topics (e.g., here, here and here) will be covered even if that coverage makes the subject uncomfortable.

What do you want this policy to be going forward? In other words, I don’t want to revisit for now how this policy might have applied to Julia (or anyone else) in the past. Feel free to use Julia or other historical examples) in making an argument and specifying how a new policy might work. But, if you don’t like this policy, please provide a new one. Write down exactly what the FAQ should say. The nice thing, in my view, about the current policy is that it provides fairly clear criteria. We need rules based, not on how much we like the person behind a given request, but on criteria that are person/viewpoint neutral.

5 Responses to “Removal Policy Going Forward”

not to nitpick, but I don’t see how this is viewpoint neutral / provides clear criteria: who decides what is an important, newsworthy, topic? That seems to leave unfettered discretion, to me.

I think it is very difficult to frame any policy that is neither completely inflexible in one direction (everything stays) or another (at request, anything can be removed). Perhaps only last names or other readily identifiable signatures that will mess someone over in the event of a google search can be removed on request, but all substantive discussions or commentary, plus some way to identify someone (first name and inital, say) remains. That may be a fair middle ground. I think also public figures should be exempt from any removal policy — and there are any number of definitions out there in jurisprudence of who is considered a public figure.

Some alternatives to consider:
-Honoring all requests, regardless of controversy, with abbreviation to First L. Of course, other media sources containing full names are beyond Ephblog’s control, so the information would hardly remain inaccessible.
-A Wikipedia-style “community consensus” regarding controversial name removals. This is especially powerful because it allows consideration of all relevant circumstances (other media sources’ naming decisions, public figure status, etc.)

1) This criteria has worked great for 4+ years. Not a single problem (IIRC) until now. I still like this criteria because it helps to create a welcoming community.

2) If you want a different rule, you need to propose the exact language that you want to see, even if it is to just change a sentence or two in what we have.

3) While community consensus is nice in theory (and might reasonably be used in tricky cases), it strikes me as unworkable in general. Eric/I have dealt with somewhere around 25 of these situations. It is too much work to open each of them to discussion. In some cases, we just remove obnoxious comments without even waiting for anyone to ask us. Any proposed solution that requires more work than we already put into this must specify who is doing that work. (Obviously, a change that requires less work — like delete nothing — does not need to worry about that.)

4) Although Dan’s suggestion about first name/last initial is not unreasonable, I am not sure why we can’t be more friendly. I want people to feel welcome here, to think nicely of EphBlog, to consider it a safe environment. Consider the case of the Eph who auditioned on American Idol. Just hiding her last name was not what she wanted. She wanted that video off of a site that so many Ephs visit. She wanted the not-terribly-complimentary discussion which followed removed. We went along with that request because of the policy.

If Ephs like that end up hating EphBlog, then I think that we are doing something wrong.

Since no one has an alternative suggestion, it looks like we will stick with what we have. I would like to change a couple words to make clear that we are also happy to edit posts, not just delete them.

How can I get a post or comment about me deleted?

Just ask! EphBlog will edit/delete almost any post or comment which mentions a specific Eph at the request of that Eph. We have been asked a dozen times to change material and have complied with almost every request. This is not to say that we will delete anything that anyone wants us to. For example, important, news-worthy topics (e.g., here, here and here) will be covered even if that coverage makes the subject uncomfortable.